Piano



A. KRIEGHOFF (NOW BY JUDICIAL CHANGE OF NAME A. WARFli ELD).

PIANO.

APPLICATION HLED FEB. 1,1917. RENEWED JUNE'ZI, 1922.

1 433 556 Patented Oct. 31, 1922.

* Fig. 1.

lnvenior.

Patented Oct. 31, 1922.

CPIAIIQ.

Application filed February 1,' 1917, Serial N0. 146,004. Renewed June21, 1922.

To (all whom it may concern:

e it known that I, ANTON KmmHorF (now by judicial change of name ANTHONYARFIELD) a citizen of the United States,-residing at 50 Nichols Street,Chelsea, county of Suffolk, State of Massachusetts, have invented anImprovement in Pianos, of which the following description, in connectionwith the accompanying drawing, is a specification, like characters onthe drawing representing like parts.

This invention relates to an improved construction in stringed musicalinstruments and is more particularly directed to pianos. The novelconstruction herein disclosed is an iiil'iprovement in structures alongthe lines of the advance in this art disclosed in the applications forLetters Patent heretofore-filed by the inventor hereof, viz, Serial No.27,927, filed May .13, 1915, Patent No. 1,261,406, granted April 2,1918, and Serial No. 49,145, filed September 7. 1915. Patent No.1,239,113 granted Sept. 41, 1.917. The general purpose of theseinventions is to produce a piano or similar instrument in which theresonant parts (particularly the sounding-board) are free to respond inthe fullest manner consonant with that degree of structural strengthnecessary in the instrument to withstand the stresses set up by thestrings. It is further proposed to augment the resonance of theinstrument by the use of the hitch plate which is separate and distinctfrom the frame, which is supported from the wrest plate at one side andso connected to the sounding board as to vibrate in consonance with thelatter.

The present novel construction broadly comprises the customary frame ofwood; a soundingboard supported thereby at its edges; a rigid metallicwrest plate secured to the wooden frame or to the usual wrest plank; andthe provision of a flexible metalli hitch plate, which is adapted tovibrate.

The common integrally cast metal string plate is only slightly vibratoryand is .designed chiefly to provide strength and rigidity to resist thestresses set up by the combined tension of the strings. This novelvibratile hitch plate is a separate entity and is provided with. animproved resilient support. It is supported by the wrest plate andotherwise is only connected yieldably to the frame and its supportingmeans are contact with the sounding-board. The

wholly out of Serial No. 569,882.

strings are attached to wrest pins on the wrest plate which is rigid andis secured to the frame. Hitch pins and bridges for the strings areprovided on the vibratile hitch plate. Suitable struts brace thevibratile hitch plate against the stresses of the strings. The hitchplate is preferably made light in weight and of such degree offlexibility that it may vibrate freely substantially throughout itsarea. The struts are so mounted and disposed as to afford efiicientbracing and to permit free vibration of the hitch plate. The bridgesafford means for communicating the "ibrations of the strings to thevibratile hitch-plate and sound-posts or transmitters communicate thesevibrations to the sounding-board.

The object of the invention is an improved .piano construction.

A more specific object is to augment the resonance of the instrument byomitting the usual sounding-board bridges, and by using a separatevibratile hitch plate having a rib or ribs "for supporting the stringsinstead of the usual sounding-board bridges.

Other objects of the invention will more fully appear from the followingdescription and the accompanying drawings and will be pointed out in theannexed claims.

In the accompanying drawings. there has been disclosed a structuredesigned to carry out the objects of the invention, but it is to beunderstood that the invention is not confined to the exact featuresshown as various changes may be made within its reasonable scope.

F ig. 1 is a plan view of the assembled vibratile member andsounding-board;

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. '3 is a section through one of the resilient supports;

Fig. 4. is a sectional view of one of the transmitters Fig. 5 is a viewshowing the mounting of one of the braces on the wrest plate.

The drawings of this application dis lose a selected embodiment of thisinvention as applied to a piano of the grand type although obviouslywith slight chances it may be incorporated in pianos ofthe up right typeand in other similar instruments of various types.

The sounding-board 1 is supported at its edges in the usual manner by aportion of to produce the wooden ii fltlnfi 2-43. The piano casing andtrains supports are not involved in this in ten 1; n and are nottherefore shown or described a \vrest plank 3 is provided, as Kai, butits upper surface is covered prei tidy by a ries ot laminations 4: ofwood or other suitable material. The wrest plate 5 is superposed uponthe top layer and is secured to the laniinations and the wrest plank inany suitable manner. The wrest plate 53 is of novel construction so asto ailord supgiiorting and bracing means for the vlln'atile hitch-plate.

"lhe vibratile hitch plate 6 is preferably made ot a metal which affordsthat requiste degree of flexibility which will give rise to the desireddegree oi vibratility. Herein, this vibrntile hitch-plz-ite is shownapertured or cut away. thus effectively reducing the weight oi the plateand eliminating surplus metal. This light plate is provided with aresilient mounting. The elongated form 0t this plate may be roughlyconsidered for descriptive purposes as that of triangle with a narrowcurved base 7 and. long curved sides. The the triangle forms oi the bassportion 7 of the plate and .bears hitch pins 8 and a rib or bridge 9-for the bass strings 10; while the longer side. which may bedesignated. as the inner side. bears marginal hitch pins 11 and'ilurality of short ribs 13 each. of which former to sorte a bridge fora single series oi treble strings known as a unison. These little.separate bridges are so positioned that each bridge is transverse to thelength of the string or strings engaged. These bridges l3 are in thisembodiment provided only for the treble strings 12, although.obvioustheyn y be also provided :tor the l 2 ings which are here shownas e the rib 9 which is cast integrally oil the plate and extendssubstantially across the base thereof. i

The opposite end of the elongated vibratile hitch-plate 6 which may beconsidered the trebleend i l of the plate. is provided wi'. a novelpirotal mounting or support. A. raised. shoulder is integral ly cast onthe plate and has formed therein a recess 16 which receives one endportion of the cylindrical rod iii. This rod has its opposite endportion held within recess 18 in a portion or the rigid wrest platesecured to the f n ne 2. The vibratile plate is thus pivotally connectedto the wrest J late at one end. The base portion 7 0 the plate 6 1Spreferably sup ported by the 'l ranie in a yieldable manner and out ofcontact with the sounding-board. 2. This is done in order that thevibratility oi? the plate Ginny not be greatly impaired by rigidsupports at this end and that the vibratility of the sounding-board maynot be impaired by the contact of the supporting means. In. thepreferred embodiment illustrated herein posts 19 are provided which areo l a length sullicient to extend from a point above the hitch-plate h,tl'n'ough the hitch plate, and sounding-board and are anchored in theframe. The post struc tures two being here shown, are similar and butone is necessary to be described. A washer 20 and nut 21 are held inthreaded engagement about the end portion of the post while a. washer 22is placed about the post where it emerges from the trains aperture.

A. coiled spring 23, encircles the post, one end bearing upon the washer29., as shown in Fig. 3. The portion. of the plate 6., adjacent its postaperture rests upon the upper end portion of the spring second coiledspring 24., encircles the post 19 and its lower end bears upon the upper"face of the plate adjacent its post aperture. The upper end of thisspring 2a is held by a washer and nut 26, the latter being held inthreaded engagement with the end portion Oil the post. The plate 6.therefore. through the two similar post supports is yieldabl held inposition. The apertures .27 in the sounding board 1 are of such diameterthat the lower springs 23 may unrestrictedly pass therethrougrh out ofcontact therewith.

T he strings both the treble l2 and the bass 10, have wrest pins 528.bridges E29. and pressure bars 30 on the wrest plate 5. It is thereforeobviously essential that the plate 6 be braced in order to withstand.thestresses set up by the strings. And while any suitable bracing meansmay be employed. it preferred in this embodiment to use a pin i'ality ofbracing? struts positioned to abut as 1st the wrest plate and theflexible In the structure here disclosed, three such braces are used.For convenience oi": indication they may be designated as the bass bracethe middle ln'ace 393 and the treble brace The brace 27 substantiallypositioned in oaralielisni with the lowest bass str' the brace with thelllfljllQSil ot the b strings; and the brace 33,with the treble :1 s.These braces are desirably formed ot -iron the braces and being in aposition to the normal upright position of t P letter T wl'iile the bassbrace has a r rely inverted position. The in c is mounted shown in Fig,wl brace at the outer enl abuts against a hit"? 34.- which is preferablyeast integrally with the hitch-plate and is a continuation of the rib 9which supports the bass strings 10. This lug 34- is s ngularly disposedwith relation to the bridge 9 in order to be pr nted substantiallytransversely to the lon tudinal axis of the brace 32. The brace 32 ishere. shown as having its outer vihratile hitch plate.

corresponding;

end portion 35 offset so that the brace is maintained out of contactwith the strings. The corre sponding outer end of the treble brace issimilarly mounted. In practice it has been found desirable to shape theterminal face of the brace so that the edge 36 (see Fig. 2) slopesbackwardly and upwardly toward the top of the T-iron, the top endportion overlapping the upper face of the lug The side 37 ot'the lug 34which engages this brace edge 36 is reversely sloped as shown in Fig. 2.Hence, the brace is held against any liability to upward displacement.The corresponding end of the treble brace is similarlymounted. A lug 38,angularly offset as is the lug 34, serves the support for-the outer endof the bass brace 31. This brace, being, inverted, has an engagementwith the lug 38 which is invertedly similar to the middle brace and istherefore not necessary to be shown or described. The struts or bracesbybeing thus positioned to engage at their ends respectively the wrestplate and the rib upon the vibratile member orstring plate are adaptedto resist the entire tension. of the strings and to permit saidvibratilc member or string plate to move freely toward and from thesounding board in its vibratile movement. Inasmuch as the vibration ofthe string plate toward and from the sounding board extends through a.practically negligible are there is no variation in the tension upon thestrings which will interfere with the amplitude or quality ottheir'tonal vibration.

v The inner ends of all the braccsare mount-- ed against the rigid wrestplate The novel wrest plate is preferably formed in one integralcasting. This casting ormed with a plurality of projecting webs or tinswhich support and reinforce the bar 39 against which the three bracesabut and are supported. This bar 39 is formed so that its under surfaccis above the plane of the wrest plate surface and permits all strings topass under the bar and out of contact there ith to the inner bridges 28.The juncture of the inner end of the middle brace and the bar 39 isshown in Fig. 5 wherein the T-iron 32 has the end face of its upright Hlug -10 which is preferably integrally fiin'rned on the bar 39. Theouter face of this lug 40 is sloped upwardly and outwardly, as shownwhile theadjacent face of the upright portion of the T-iron brace 32 issymmetrically formed to fit closely thereagainst. The flat top portionprojects slightly to overlap the upper face of the lug 40. The inner endof the brace 33 is similarly supported. This inclined abut ment, likethe inclined engagement of the outer ends of the braces heretoforementioned, serves to prevent upward displaceportion abutting against Theinner end of the against its lug 40 and is mounted similarly tothe'mounting of its opposite end against the lug 355 above referred to.The wrest plate is provided with a plurality of strengthening memberscomprising an upwardly proiecting flange {Ll preferably formed upon thewrest plate casting along its three sides-those other than the inner orbar side. The flange portions of the two short sides adequatelystrengthen the wrest plate against the thrust of the bass brace and themounting of the treble end of the vibratile flexible plate 6. A shortweb. 4 2 similarly serves the bar opposite the mounting of the inner endof the treble brace 33 while a web {13 joining the bar 39 and the flange41 strengthens the mounting-of the inner end of the brace 32.

The vibratile hitch plate is thus adapted to vibrate freely throughoutits area and readilyresponds to the vibrations of all of the stringswhich, as shown and described, have bridges on this vibratile plate.Means are afforded whereby the vibrations of the'flexible hitch-platemaybe fully and ment of the braces. bass brace 31 abuts efiicientlycommunicated tothe sounding,

board. To this endthere are provided a plurality of transmitters, shownin Fig. 4. These transmitters each consist of a post 44. preferably ofmetal, which is connected to the vibratile l'iitoh-plate 6 and isreceived in threaded engagement in the wooden sounding-board. In th'esdisclosure, a block of wood 45 is affixed to the under face of thesounding-board opposite each post and receives in threaded engagementtho'post end which projectsthrough the souii iliir board. The other endof the post exteniilii'ig through the vibratile l'iitclrplate 6, hasthreaded thereon two nuts 46 which are turned tightly against the upperand under faces respectvely of the vibratile hitchplate. Thesetransmitter-s may be disposed in any suitable manner and in any desirednumber efficiently to accomplish their function of transmitting thevibration of the vibratile hitch-plate 6 to the soundingboard. In Fig. 1is disclosed the disposition of a number of these transmitters.

This invention has produced a novel piano construction in which theplate is elminated. The usual strin plate is stiff and heavy to attainthe strength requisite to withstand the enormous aggregate tensionsofthe strings and its vibratility is of slight value. Further, suchstring plates are secured to the outer and nonvibratory portions of thesounding-board. Hence, the string-plate is itself but slightly vibratoryand its vibrations can only be transmitted to the non-vibratory marginsof the sounding-board. In the new structure, the vibratile plate isrelatively light and usual rigid string selected embodiment of the inflexible as compared to the usual string plate. It is mounted inayieldable manner out of contact with the freely vibratory sounding--board except through the sound transmitters so disposed as tocommunicate efficiently its vibratory energy to the sounding-board.

While there has been illustrated herein a vention, it is to beunderstood that the construction disclosed is illustrative but notrestric' ve and that the same may be modified within the meaning andscope of the claims which follow.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

1. A musical instrument compris'ng frame, a sounding-board and strings,a vibratile hitch plate separate from said frame, means for pivotallysupporting the latter to aermit bodily vibration thereof in consonancewith the sounding-board.

2. A musical instrument comprising a frame, strings and sounding-board,a vibratile hitch plate separate from the frame,

strings to said means for connecting the said hitch hitch plate, meansfor supportin plate against adapted to permit the hitch plate to vibratebodily, and means for transmitting the vibration of said hitch plate tothe sounding board.

3 A musical instrument comprising a frame, a sounding-board, a wrestplate, a vibratile hitch plate separate 7 from the frame, stringsconnected to said hitch plate and said wrest plate, means pivotally, connecting one end of said hitch plate to said wrest plate, and a pluralityof struts engaging said vibratile hitch plate and said wrest plate andacting to brace said hitch plate against the action of the strings,whereby the hitch plate is prevented from yielding relatively to thewrest plate under the tension of the strings, but is permitted tovibrate freely in consonance with the sounding-board.

4:. A musical instrument comprising a frame, sounding-board and wrestplate, a vi bratile hitch plate, strings connected to said hitch plateand said wrest plate, means pivotally connecting one end of said hitchplate to said wrest plate, and a plurality of struts engaging the edgeof said vibratile hitch plate and said wrest plate and acting to bracesaid hitch plate against the action of said strings, whereby said hitchplate is prevented from yielding relatively to the wrest plate under thetension of the strings, but

the tension of the strings, but

' spring coiled frame, strings,

eas es is permitted to effect free transverse vibrations, and resilientmeans sustaining the hitch plate in a predetermined position relativelyto the sounding-board,

5. iii musical instrument comprising a frame, strings and soundingboard,a wrest plate secured to the frame, a free vibratile hitch plateseparate from the frame, means includinga plurality of struts engagingsaid vibratile hitch plate and said wrest plate and operating to supportsaid hitch plate, a plurality of bridges on said vibratile hitch plate,each of said bridges being substantially normal with the direction ofthe strings supported by them, and means forcommunicating to thesounding-board vibrations of said hitch plate. p

6. A musical instrument comprising a frame, strings, and sounding-boardhaving apertures therein, a wrest plate secured to the frame, anelongated vibratile hitch plate separate from the frame, means forsupporting said vibratile hitch plate from said wrest plate, a pluralityof posts secured to the frame, each projecting through the apertures inthe sounding-board and the vibratile hitch plate, a spring coiled abouteach post and compressively held by the under face of the hitch plateand the top face of the frame, the sounding-board apertures be ing of adiameter larger than that of the diameter of the springs, a retainingmember on the upper end ofeach post, a second 7 about each post andcompresssively held between the top face of the hitch plate and saidretaining member, whereby the vibratile hitch plate is resiliently supported, means for communicating the spring vibrations to the hitchplate, and means for communicating the vibrations of the hitch plate tothe sounding-board.

7., A musical instrument comprising a a sounding-board, a wrest plate, atriangular shaped hitch plate separate from said frame, pivotallyconnected adjacent its apex to the wrest plate, a plurality of strutsengaging said hitch plate and said wrest plate acting to brace suchhitch plate against the tension of the said strings, means forcommunicating the vibrations of .the strings to the hitch plate, andmeans for communicating the vibrations to the sounding-board.

ln testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

ANTON KRIEGHOFF.

